Ten years after it carved a niche all of its own, Honda has rehoned the 'Blade into an almost unmatchable machine. Kevin Ash reports
Next year marks the 10th anniversary of Honda's pivotal FireBlade, the bike which single-handedly changed the direction of big-capacity sports bikes. At a time when big meant BIG in terms of size and weight as well as capacity and power, when bikes like the Suzuki GSX-R1100 and Yamaha FZR1000 EXUP were monsters to wrestle with rather than the honed track tools that the term "sports" ought to have implied, the FireBlade's concentration on light weight and agility were no less than a revelation. Designer Tadao Baba's mission

Honda's hugely successful FireBlade debuted in 1992 and re-wrote the rules for big bore sportsbikes like no other before it.
A further refinement of the excellent Year 2000 model (929), the new 6th generation FireBlade offers plenty of improvements.

The 2000 model Fireblade holds a huge advantage over the previous model. The engine is a pearler.
Clean useable drive is available just about everywhere in the rev range. There is a little stumble right off the bottom at a bit over 2,500 rpm (as the H-VIX valve in the exhaust opens to its middle position) but this is of no consequence, as you should never really be pottering about at such low revs.